My younger cousin is almost exactly ten years younger than me. A couple years ago, when she graduated high school, I remember her saying that she was excited to graduate because she was "tired of all the drama." I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth.
Frankly, the truth is even worse than I thought at the time. It's worse in a lot of ways, ranging from workplace to relationships to the world at large. Politics seem to be the worst place for that. I find myself growing more and more alienated by the current dialogue. Dialogue? Do we have a dialogue? It seems like anymore, what we have is a series of adult (?) cliques duking it out behind the gym.
The funny thing is that my ideology has largely remained the same since I registered to vote. Sure, the issues change, but my values haven't moved really at all. The titles for what "group" I'm supposed to belong in have changed, though. When I graduated high school, I would have been called "very liberal." Five years later, I was considered "progressive." Around the time of Occupy, most people would've seen me as a "socialist." Around the time of the last election, I was a "democratic socialist" and then a "Bernie bro" (which is funny, because I am not male, not particularly argumentative and I don't have a particularly strong affection for Senator Sanders. He was never anything more or less than adequate, in my book) and then a "leftist" and then a "progressive" again. Can someone drop me a memo when y'all have made up your damn minds? I was cool with "very liberal," frankly. It's not the most accurate phrasing in terms of economics and political science, but it's not like I didn't get what you meant.
So there's a segment of the population that I definitely relate to the most in terms of political affiliation... and yet, I find myself just as alienated from them. Because they're spending just as much time duking it out behind the gym as any of the other groups, and I don't do that anymore. I don't want to do that anymore. I don't know why anyone does.
And whenever I say that, someone will inevitably shout "but what about..." There's a sketch in that. Someone just randomly popping out from under my desk saying "don't you hate X?!" Yes, we need to fight certain ideologies. Yes, there are absolutely some views so repugnant that I am strongly opposed to them on an ethical level. But that's not the case with every political disagreement. That's what scares me about today's political climate; we've somehow come the conclusion that every single goddamn disagreement is grounds for a duel. We've completely lost our ability to pick our battles. That scares the living shit out of me. If we can't prioritize, what the fuck are we even doing?
Don't Americans ever just get tired of hating each other? I'm exhausted just being around it.